Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, January 8, 2003

2003-01-08 04:00:00 PDT Beijing -- A onetime secretary to Mao Zedong has published a sweeping call for political change in a Beijing magazine, warning that China must embrace democratic politics and free speech to avoid stagnation and possible collapse.

"Only with democratization can there be modernization," said the retired official, Li Rui, 85. "This has been a global tide since the 20th century, especially the Second World War, and those who join it will prosper, while those who resist will perish."

Li, a longtime advocate of faster political liberalization, has been held at arm's length by party leaders. But his status as a confidant to Mao and as a pugnacious critic of conservatives inside the Communist Party has given him a degree of protection from censorship and a large readership.

The publication of his article in China Chronicle, a magazine widely read by party officials, is the latest sign of growing demands for open discussion of political reform. China Chronicle is a popular history magazine published by a cultural research institute that is run by retired officials, many with a reputation for liberal views.

Li's call to action comes at a sensitive time, with many officials and academics here waiting to see if China's new leaders, installed at a party congress last November, will consider any substantial relaxation of one-party rule in coming years.

The January issue of China Chronicle features Li's speech to a group of delegates at that congress. In the article, he bluntly criticizes the Communist Party's resistance to political change and warns that China's stability may be imperiled by further delay.

"The key is reforming an aged political system that is obsolescent, and speeding up the development of democratic politics so the country can truly embark on a course of lasting political stability," he said.

Li challenged China's leaders to lead the way with major reforms starting at the top.

He proposed formally limiting party leaders to maximum tenures of 10 years and making the party's congress an annual meeting that directly elects its leaders. At present, the congress meets every five years, and leaders are appointed through a secretive process, with no direct say from ordinary delegates.

Li also proposed wide-ranging measures to limit the Communist Party's powers, to begin introducing the popular election of government officials and to protect freedom of speech and independent rule of law.

He said the party remained "above the law," and he proposed several legal reforms to tame its powers, including an independent judiciary, a new constitutional court and laws to protect private associations, citizen rights and freedom of speech.

Criticizing the censorship exercised by the Propaganda Department, Li said, "Freedom of speech, especially freedom of publication, is a citizen's most fundamental right, and to swiftly and effectively bring abuse of government power under scrutiny, it must be fully protected."

Li has been a party member since 1937 and is a veteran of political controversy. In the late 1950s he was Mao Zedong's secretary, until he criticized the deadly excesses of Mao's attempt to realize communism; he was later imprisoned. During the 1980s, he was an ally of the ousted party chief Hu Yaobang and became a leading critic of the controversial Three Gorges Dam.